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The miracle of the loaves and fishes is one of the most memorable events of the Gospels—even though a similar occurrence in today’s Hebrew Scriptures doesn’t get as much notice. We might ask ourselves why this miracle gets so much notice. In fact we might ask ourselves "Why this miracle?" There was a time when it was thought that Jesus went around working signs of wonder simply to “show off.” He was God and wanted to attract attention. His purpose was primarily to prove that he was God. In the tradition of the community of John the Evangelist this seems to be the case. Though that was important to that early Christian community, there is more to this story. Somehow, I think, we today must see this miracle in the context of our total understanding of Jesus.As we read the Gospels we are struck by another rather simple, but not simplistic, reason for Jesus’ miracles. He wanted to help people in need. Not just as God, but as a human being, Jesus could not tolerate human suffering, poverty, hunger, death or sin. So he showed us through his miracles how to deal with these human crises Unfortunately this reason for the miracles is harder for us to accept than just embracing the “proof-of-divinity” reason. Because if we accept the premise that the miracles Jesus performed were intended not so much to prove his divinity as to show us how he expected his disciples to act, it means we have to do more than stand in awe of divine power. We have to get to work! As St. Paul says: …to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received….Taking the miracle as another example of the way Jesus wants us to act in the face of a human crisis isn’t all that hard to imagine. First of all, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the young child who had the loaves and fish with him was not an isolated case. It is entirely possible that the over 5,000 people may also have brought some food along for what may well have been an extended time away from their homes.You see where this is going. Rather than diminishing the miracle, the child, responding to Jesus’ invitation, comes forth (as opposed to the apostles who balked at “spending two hundred days wages”) and so moved the crowd that they in turn shared with one another what they had. So much so that when it was all over a great abundance of food was left! Now to my way of thinking that’s some miracle!This answer to “Where’s the miracle” makes our initial premise of “Why the miracle” more plausible for us today. Let’s face it, there is just something a little dangerous and very un-Christ-like about believing that God will do something about homelessness or poverty, hunger or racism, immigration or lack of universal health, or any of the other crises facing us.Where’s the miracle? The hungry will be liberated from the tyranny of poverty when we follow Jesus’ lead and share our abundance with them. Where’s the miracle? Racism will be eliminated when all of us humble ourselves to see the equality of others as children of God. Where’s the miracle? Health care and immigration reform will happen when compassion moves us to expend the human energy to solve those problems.To put it in a more pedestrian way: “If we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem!” Or better for we who claim to follow Christ: “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on us!”In the light of the Eucharist we celebrate each week, an even more critical reflection on the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 presents itself. Though Mark’s version (6:34-44) makes this point a bit more strongly, the feeding stories in the Gospels are also about the Eucharist. So that this is not just about responding to a human need, but it’s also about the centrality of the Eucharist in that Christian mandate. Just as Jesus feeds us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we are to allow his Body and Blood to transform us into his healing presence in the world so that it’s no longer “Where’s the miracle? We are the miracle! This interpretation of the Feeding of the 5,000 comes from a Father Eugene LaVerdiere. His books on the Eucharist can be found